p. 35 | JESUS' LOVE

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 22, 1859

JESUS' LOVE.

"WHOSOEVER shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother." Matt. xii: 50.

As if no solitary earthly type were enough to image forth the love of Jesus, he assembles into one verse a group of the tenderest earthly relationships. And who are those who can claim the blessedness spoken of under this wondrous imagery? On whom does He lavish this unutterable affection? No outward profession will purchase it. No church, no priest, or ordinances, no denominational distinctions. It is on those who are possessed of a holy character: "He that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." He who reflects the mind of Jesus, imbibes his Spirit, takes his word as the regulator of his daily walk, and makes his glory the great end of his being; he who lives to God and with God and for God; the humble, lowly, Christ-like, heaven-seeking Christian—he it is who can claim as his own this wondrous heritage of love.

Though we are often ashamed to call Jesus "brother," "He is not ashamed to call us brethren." He lookes down on poor worms, and says, "The same is my mother, and sister, and brother." "I will write upon them," he says in another place, "my new name." Just as we write our name on a book to tell that it belongs to us, so Jesus would write his own name on us, the wondrous volumes of his grace, that they may be read and pondered by principalities and powers.

Have we "known and believed this love of God?" Ah, how poor has been the requital! Who cannot subscribe to the words of one whose praise was in all the churches: "Thy love has been as a shower; the return but a dewdrop, and that dewdrop stained with sin."—Words of Jesus.